Hanne

[nola_joshlyman]

Diego had to stop putting it off. He had a bunch of Hanne's mail that he needed to give her. And he knew he should do it now, because she was seeing someone else and was in love, and so what was the point of holding onto her mail or asking her to drop by? He had to shift his thinking, again, into a new era of Hanne and Diego. An era in which there wasn't a Hanne and Diego.

So it was late morning when Diego went by Hanne's new apartment with the mail in one hand, following a different resident into the building. He knocked on the door, steeling himself for seeing Hanne again for the first time, knowing now that she had moved on.

Comments

[nola_tristan]

“Maybe that’s just what brunch brings out in me.” He leaned over and kissed her quickly.

[nola_yvaine]

She caught his face in her hands and drew it out for a moment. "Then we're having brunch every weekend."

[nola_tristan]

“Marriage, kids, brunch,” Max said, when they finally parted. Their list of goals was strong.

[nola_yvaine]

"Sounds perfect," she agreed, then pointed at the table. "Now sit, eat. It's not chalk but I bet you'll like it anyway."

[nola_tristan]

“I can give up chalk for you,” Max said with a playful sigh, sitting down at the table. “Especially because this looks amazing."

[nola_yvaine]

Hanne sat, put her hands over her heart. "I've never been so touched in my life. Sacrificing for me already."

[nola_tristan]

“It’s going to be tough, but you’re worth it.” Max took a bite out of a pancake, and it was great.

[nola_yvaine]

He was so ridiculous, and she loved him so completely. She smiled the entire time she was eating, one foot resting against his under the table, just for the comfort of contact.

[nola_tristan]

“Hey Hanne?” He asked between bites, enjoying that extra contact.

[nola_yvaine]

She pushed a piece of pancake through a puddle of syrup and then tried to get it to her mouth before it all dripped out again. "Yeah Max?"

[nola_tristan]

Max watched this like it was the most fascinating thing in the world, and to him, it was. “Do you want to talk about the Diego thing?”

[nola_yvaine]

"Do you want to talk about the Diego thing?" she asked back because, well, he'd been having feelings about Diego even before he'd shown up at their--her--their? door.

[nola_tristan]

“It’s not my favorite topic. But I don’t want you to feel like you have to silence yourself because of me.”

[nola_yvaine]

"I'm not." She paused, correct herself. "I don't think I am. Not on purpose, anyway. It's just...very very weird to have my life change so much so quickly. Even though it is, entirely, for the better," she assured him, reaching over the lightly touch his hand. "And I can't tell him the whole story, even though it might make him feel less awful. Or maybe it wouldn't, and I just miss being able to tell him important things, because I've told him every important thing until now. I don't know."

[nola_tristan]

“You were both so sad. I’m sorry I’m part of that.” But Max would never be able to understand their relationship, he suspected.

[nola_yvaine]

"You make me so happy, Max. I hate that that is hurting Diego, but I'm not going to be less happy because of it. That's not fair to you, and that's not fair to me. It would be a waste of what we have." What they had was this beautiful, amazing, literally fairy-tale thing that Hanne couldn't take for granted.

"It's going to take some time to get used to the fact that I can be this happy and it's not with him, but this is what was supposed to happen. It was why I left. And I'm still going to be happy. I'll just...wish on one of my falling siblings that he finds someone better for him than me soon." Not that that was going to be all fun and games for her, but she still loved Diego enough to want the best for him.

"It's all easier when you keep moving forward, he just feels like he isn't." She'd gone back to school, she'd moved, she'd found someone. He hadn't. She understood why that was so hard for him, and she wanted to help, but she couldn't.

[nola_tristan]

"You make me so happy too. I feel sorry for him, because we're meant for each other, and I know what loving you feels like, so I can't blame him for doing it. Maybe this is the push he needs to move forward." And maybe he wouldn't come around again to make Hanne cry!

[nola_yvaine]

"It's such a strange thing," Hanne mused, and maybe it seemed like she was changing the subject a little, but she wasn't. "People everywhere make lives with each other, and they think it's right, or believe it's right, or want it to be right, but they don't know, not for sure. That's the way it is for everyone, and they know that, so they just do their best, and get as close as they can to knowing that it's right." That's what she and Diego had done, what she assumed she'd have to do with whoever new she found. "But we know. It's like we got some sort of cheat code, so we know we're right. How crazy is that?" Crazy in the best possible way.

[nola_tristan]

"We're really lucky, aren't we?" Max replied, thoughtfully. Hanne was right. No one was ever as sure as they were. They had a century of sure.

[nola_yvaine]

"We're so lucky," Hanne agreed. "And that's even without taking into consideration that you look like...that," she added, grinning as she gestured up and down at him.

[nola_tristan]

"Wait wait wait, have you seen yourself?" Max was delighted. "You're stunning!"

[nola_yvaine]

"Really? I hadn't noticed," she answered playfully. And who could blame her when she was more than a little distracted looking him over appreciatively.

[nola_tristan]

"I noticed. It's all I notice in the world now," Max answered, quite forgetting about the pancakes in favor of staring.

[nola_yvaine]

The pancakes were great and she was only half-finished eating, but who even cared? Hanne smiled as she got up and moved over to Max, but instead of sitting nicely in his lap like she had outside Phoenix Effect--appropriate for public consumption--she straddled it and slid all the way forward, arms looped over his shoulders. "You're the only one I want to notice me."

[nola_tristan]

Ah, the most delicious part of brunch. Max grinned, all wolfish, and steadied his hands on Hanne's hips as he kissed her.